Uber self driving robotic cars on road

Uber announced today that they are launching self driving cars at Pittsburgh. A Joint statement released by Anthony Levandowski, Founder, Otto and VP, Self-Driving Technology and Travis Kalanick CEO and Co-Founder on their blog with the photograph of Radar implanted on it uber.

“A year and a half ago, Uber set up an Advanced Technologies Center (ATC) in Pittsburgh. Its mission: to make self-driving Ubers a reality. Today, we’re excited to announce that the world’s first Self-Driving Ubers are now on the road in the Steel City.”
“We’re inviting our most loyal Pittsburgh customers to experience the future first. If a Self-Driving Uber is available, we’ll send it along with a safety driver up front to make sure the ride goes smoothly. Otherwise it’s uberX as usual.”

We are heading towards a robotic era where every humanely task can be executed by robots using AI and machine learning. Elon musk of Tesla stated electric and self driving car revolution and the future seems quite promising. On other hand google spent huge money in building drivelers vehicles and planning for a commercial launch early next year.  Past Month nuTonomy launched self driving cars in Singapore which is also in pilot phase.

Uber says “This pilot is a big step forward. Real-world testing is critical to the success of this technology. And creating a viable alternative to individual car ownership is important to the future of cities.”

Research predicts that by 2020 6% of total human jobs will be executed by robots which can take economy to new course. If this self driving technology is successful, Uber can solve majority of its problem which is on boarding and managing drivers. Driver less fleet will make Uber much more scale able and automated while reducing liabilities associated with the actions of  reckless drivers.
Ola should be worried about these technological advances Uber is making. While it might take few years for this technology to be launched in India, If Uber is successful in this pilot it can kill both competition and complexity of taxi business globally.